Jinichiro walked through the streets in his "incognito" form with his hands behind his head and a blank expression on his face. "Bored, bored bored..." he mumbled to himself as he eyed potential targets. It was still early in the day and nobody was out drinking yet, which meant he'd have to wait for his barroom shenanigans. Perhaps he he found a group of kids he could teach them how to properly conduct mischief; that was always fun. His train of thought was interrupted, however, as a scrawny young man bumped into him. Jin locked eyes with the stranger. I used to think I was clever when I pulled this stunt 100 years ago, he thought. It was a typical pickpocket ploy. Apparently, Jin's aloof demeanor had made him look like a target. The nerve of some people! In any case, the game was on.

A small puff of foxfire flickered in his pocket. Normally, the thief would only find a bunch of twigs and leaves, but this time he would make it seem like more. In their couple-second exchange, the thief grabbed what he thought was a pouch of money, gave a quick apology, and then disappeared -- or at least that what the thief thought he did -- into the crowd. Fortunately, the thief hadn't bathed in a couple of days, so his scent was easy to pick out. Time for phase two! Jin disappeared behind a store, grinning ear to ear.

When Jin returned to the streets, he was now a beautiful girl wearing an elegant kimono. He drew the attention of several men, but there was only one he was interested in. Tracking down the thief was elementary. He didn't even have a cool hideout, just some random alley where he planned to count out his loot. Now came the fun part. "Oh, this isn't the tea house I was looking for. Where could it be... Excuse me sir, is there a tea house around here?"

The thief was caught off-guard when Jin addressed him. His poor hygiene had given him scant few chances to talk to women. He wasn't about to pass this opportunity up. "Why yes there is," he said with a dumb grin. "If you like I could take you there. Tell you what, let's make it my treat." He shook the recently procured pouch in the air.

Jin blushed and gave a cute giggle, hiding his mouth with the folds of his kimono. "That... sounds like a lot of fun," he said in a shy tone. "But we don't know each other at all." The thief was about to protest, but Jin continued. "I know! We can play a little game first!"

"Um... what did you have in mind?"

"That pouch of money you have. If I can guess how much is in it, you have to spend it all on me, but if I'm wrong, you can have half for yourself. Either way it's a win for you!" Jin giggled again, waiting for him to take the bait. Of course, he could just poof into fox form whenever he wanted and scare the crap out of the guy, but screwing with his head like this was just so much more fun. "But I'll warn you, I never lose at this game, so you better not back out."

The thief chuckled. There was no way anybody could know the exact amount in the pouch except the owner. And he was pretty sure he knew the difference between boys and girls. She could win by dumb luck, but what were the odds of that. "Alright, you're on."

Jin reach out and held up three fingers.

"Three coins? That's your guess?"

"No, silly... three centipedes."

The thief laughed at the ridiculous answer. "Centipedes!? Well it looks like I win then because there's--" He opened the pouch and went to scoop out the coins, but then went pale. His hands had clasped three long, writhing, repulsive bugs. Then his eyes went wide with horror. "There's no way! Monster! She's a monster!" He through the pouch to the ground and ran off screaming and praying that he wasn't cursed.

Jinichiro could not hold back his laughter, and in a burst of foxfire returned to his "true form." On the ground there was no longer a pouch, but a leaf and three sticks. Jin staggered back onto the street holding his gut from laughter. "Three coins? Is that your guess?" he mocked between gasps. He wiped a tear away from his face and regained himself, not really giving a damn that people were staring. "Today is going to be a good day!"

Even without an active duty, one should always be prepared.

It was for this reason that the white-haired Russian girl, her coat carried lightly in the wind, still clutched her suitcase. The Amarok wolf, face fixed in an intense growl as always, was emblazoned on the side. Surely this was enough for anyone to be aware of her nature. Strictly speaking she was not directly needed... at the moment. But why not be prepared? She was not wearing the Amarok bodysuit, instead wearing a white shirt, a grey vest, and a navy blue skirt, but that didn't matter. She was still prepared. An Amarok Hunter is always prepared.

Her free hand firmly in her pocket as she walked along with her suitcase, Esfir Borgoslavia strode down the street with focused intent. She didn't want anyone to go frivolously talking to her. That would quite simply be irritating. She wanted to go and do what she had intended from the start, and any delays would be met with nothing more than annoyance. She didn't want to deal with anyone who thought she needed someone to talk to, or anything foolish like that. No, instead she kept simply walking down the street.

Because damn it, she really wanted a sandwich.

There was a cafe not too much further down the road. The atmosphere was nice, the food was good, the staff wore nice uniforms and the decoration was cute... not that Esfir cared about the latter two matters, of course. She obviously didn't. The important thing was that she got her meal. Currently she was just on standby in case there was any kind of monster activity in this location, and she certainly couldn't do that on an empty stomach.

---



"Haauu... there's no customers!"

Yukiko slumped down on the counter, one arm extended and another folded beneath her head. She let out a long sigh as she did, lying there for a few moments. There really was no-one... was no one interested in her magic? She had some onmyodo too, normally that got people's attention... On top of that, was there really no-one who needed any problems solved? She really was open to anything! Any type of problem she could possibly solve! ... Well, except Western cooking. Yukiko had some serious trouble with some of the recipes... But most other things she was really pretty good at! It was her job, and everything! Why wasn't anyone showing up?

Noticing that her hat was beginning to fall over her eyes, Yukiko quickly pushed it up and notice something a bit... well... improper for a shop/problem solving place... thing! Still laying slumped down on her counter, she had to mention it!

"You can't just sit on the counter, Koneko-san..."

The cat-eared girl looked down, over her shoulder. Named Koneko because 'small cat' seemed like a good idea for a name at the time, the nekomata was something of an assistant to the witch. In spite of being older in both chronological age and appearance. But she was the familiar in this situation, so it was her job to help out! ... And she usually was pretty good at that, except for times like, well... this.

"It's not like we have any customers right now," replied Koneko, taking a bite of her taiyaki. It was red bean from what Yukiko could tell... she could feel her stomach craving some red bean taiyaki for herself. Or anything, really. But she had to stay here... what if someone came by while she was gone?

"That's not the point," replied Yukiko, finally sitting up, "What if someone comes by and they see you sitting on the counter like that?"

She paused for a moment, before adding "And where did you get that taiyaki?"

Koneko smiled, and took another bite. After she swallowed, she gave her answer with a wink and a smile.

"My secret~"

"Err." Jack said, flinching against the sun's light like a man who tried to stare down a tiger. "Its a bit bright today, isn't it?" No answer. Good. He wasn't hearing any voices. That was a good place to start, the first step to vindicating his sanity really. It was a proud moment. "Maybe its enough?" It wasn't, and he knew it, but a part of him hoped there would be something that agreed with statement enough to allow for him to go back inside, and curl up with another novel. "Er... I guess, this is going to happen, isn't it?" No denying the fact that happening was the case. "Crap." He sighed, and turned to lock the door behind him. It didn't give him any trouble. Honestly, the thing couldn't carer less if he was there or not, not just because it was an intimate object incapable of thoughts or feelings, but because while he was at the house there was nothing worthy about the place to stand guard over, which was what a door was for, at least as far as the door was concerned. The man's presence somehow managed to bring down the property value enough to make the door want to throw itself open at the first sign of an intruder, or angry dog that was passing by. "Crap." He said again. "Your enjoying this, aren't you?" HE peered at the door, but it pretended not to notice, even when his eyes got right up to its spy hole. "Ah well." he shrugged, and walked down the steps from his little house at the edge of town. "Got to learn to deal with it sometime."

AT first he had no idea where he was going. He knew where he'd been, but that didn't seem relevant for some reason. Sure, they, whoever they were, always said those who don't learn from the past were bound to repeat it. What connection that had to his current situation he had no idea, but there was something to ir, or so he told himself because of the need to fixate on something so he wouldn't run screaming back to his house,so he kept playing with the notion as he walked through the village sidewalk. After awhile he gave up on the idea he'd figure out where'd he'd try first as he walked about, and made up his mind to head back and lick his wounds, which weren't actually there, unless soreness counted. He did, which was what he would've preferred to happen. Instead, he got lost, and not just the regular kind where you look around and mumble to yourself that none of this looked familiar. It was the other one, the kind that's usually reserved for little kids who are old enough to ask someone for help, but too small to remember its an action so lots of running around and screaming, quietly, was involved. He did this until he got hungry, and saw a little cafe that looked interesting, at least to his stomach which all but hefted him up by the scruff of the neck and dragged him into the shop.

"Hullo." He said, pausing at the entrance. There was a strange looking woman behind the desk, all of them looked strange to him, males too, and an even stranger one sitting on the desk eating something he'd never smelled before. "Uhm. Are you open?" He said, looking from one person to another. "If not I could come back, or not." He shrugged again because his shoulders were getting to the point that they'd just give up, walk out, and let his arms fall where they would. "But if you are open could I have A CUP OF Tea, with honey. More honey than tea, please. You know how its mostly comes out as brown water with a bit of thickness to it on account of the honey? Well there should be more thickness to it than wetness on account of the tea really only being there for flavor." He realized he was babbling, and his mouth snapped shut like a snapping turtle who didn't want to wait around all day for another fish who couldn't tell the difference between a tongue and a worm.

The bell signifying that someone had entered the shop rang as the door brushed it, and Yukiko immediately sat at attention. They had a customer! There wasn't even any time to try and shove Koneko off the counter(which is what she had been worried about, but the fact that a customer had actually appeared was more important at the moment). No, all she could do was sit at the ready! ... Koneko sat significantly less ready, leaning back on her palms after she popped the last of her taiyaki in her mouth, ears twitching.

Yukiko opened her mouth to introduce herself and her shop, but the black-haired girl was quickly cut off by the boy's nonsense rambling. Tea? Why would they have any tea... She glanced to the side. No, shelves of basic magic supplies, folders of ofuda, racks of chalk... and to the other side some simple tomes and other items of a similar nature. Certainly nothing that would remotely indicate that they were a cafe. The name of the place was even 'The Magic Shop', why would they be selling tea?

"... This isn't a cafe," she said, despondent that her customer turned out to be someone acting much like her father after two much sake on a holiday who didn't want a problem solved or to buy magic supplies, "We don't make tea here."

Koneko folded her arms.

"I don't know why you'd think we would," she added, "There's a cafe down the road. Don't be cruel to Yuki-chan and get her hopes up."

The wind bellowed as Ricardo slashed through two monsterish birds with his Caplade. Feathers flew about as they cut into his skin.

"Damn it..." He muttered. He readied his Caplade and sliced through three cards. "This will end it!"

SLA-VERTI-HORIZONTAL!

He pointed his glowing sword towards the Swallow Card Against Humanity. The bastard was giving him the most trouble with its speed.

GEO-SLASH!

"SEI-HAAAAH!" He screamed out as he slashed in three directions, effectively creating a triangle. The swallow's wings were cut off before it exploded. The scream of pain sent the other CAH into a fury. Fortunately, he had enough power for one final Geo-Slash, destroying the Swan CAH as well. He quickly switched it to his camera mode and took a picture of the ghostly remains of the CAHs. The camera flashed as the ghosts were converted into cards. He picked them up. The Swallow gave WIND while the Swan gave FLY. Ricardo looked at Fly and sliced them.

WIND! FLY!
EXPEDIA!

Suddenly, Ricardo jumped up in the air and flew off so many miles north like a rocket... towards a certain little shop

Solomon yawned and stretched his whole body. Looking around with sleepy eyes he wandered where he was this time. The Village was an oddity with all the weird stuff that kept happening to it, so he could never actually tell where he would wake up. Realising that he was in the most stable, therefore the ost normal, part of the The Village he decided to get some food before he did anything else.

Jumping down from the tree he had slept in Solomon stretched his body sinuosly one last time,flicking his tail, then heading of to find a cafe where he could use his kitty eyes and get something to snack on. On his way there he noticed a woman smelling of foxes suddenly change into a man, lauging, while watching another running away screaming. He decided he will find him later to see what he was and to see if he could get any entertainment from him.

After walking a bit more he found a cafe that was usually quite geneous to fororn looking kitties. It was a shame he couldn't talk, watching people freak out when he did would have been quite funny, so would convincing them thaat they had gone insane because they could hear a cat talking. Oh well, theres lunch.